The Spearhead Property Group and Convenco, the holding company of the Cape Town International Conference Centre, have signed a deal to build a landmark office tower on the gravel parking lot on the eastern side of the CTICC, adjacent to the Marimba restaurant. 

As part of the development, Spearhead will be providing an additional 1 200m2 of exhibition space for Convenco, to its existing Exhibitions Hall, significantly expanding its capacity. The exhibition hall extension will occupy part of the ground floor of the new commercial building.

Construction on the R140 million new building will start before the end of 2005, and the extension to the exhibition hall will be substantially complete by December 2006. The rest of the structure will be complete in early 2007.

Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of Convenco, says, “The new building will be erected on what is at present called the ‘Heerengracht site’ - vacant land currently used as an informal parking lot - and will complete the original CTICC campus with a handsome building at a prominent address. 

“The new building will be developed by Spearhead Property Group, a JSE-listed Property Fund and Management company, and will provide much needed additional space to Africa’s most successful conferencing and exhibitions centre, which held 367 events in the last year alone.”

The extension of the exhibition area is needed to give extra space for the large and ever-growing events, like the Cape Town Jazz Festival and exhibitions like the Homemakers Fair and Decorex, as well as being able to offer more event capacity overall for the increasing number of large international conventions.

Douglas says the first event to be hosted in the expanded Exhibitions Hall will be the International Diabetes Conference – one of CTICC’s first city-wide mega conferences - with 10 000 people expected to attend.

Mike Flax, CEO of Spearhead Property Group said that the new building would become a landmark for the City of Cape Town. Spearhead would create a building of which all Cape Town residents would feel proud. 

The Spearhead development will be a sleek, modern office tower with about 12 000m2 of space. Designed by Dennis Fabian Berman Architects, it will form a bookend to the Arabella Sheraton, sandwiching the CTICC neatly in-between, and creating a balance between the buildings that are now there. The new building will also have retail space, three parking levels and basement parking.

This landmark development will be another major Spearhead project.  Spearhead will be leasing the land for a period of up to 70 years. 

For further information contact Mike Flax on 021 425 1000.